Somme expresses the full range of meaning of the word 'grim'...I doubt if there are any better than this (John Terraine Daily Telegraph)

A worthy addition to the literature of the Great War (Daily Mail)

From the Back Cover:

Reissued to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War

'There was hardly a household in the land, there was no trade, occupation, profession or community, which was not represented in the thousands of innocent enthusiasts who made up the ranks of Kitchener's Army before the Battle of the Somme . . .'

The Somme was one of the great turning-points, not just in the First World War, but in British history: the men of an entire generation were crushed in a desperate struggle to survive.

On paper, few battles have ever been so meticulously planned. Yet the reality of launching a joint offensive with a French Army already broken by huge casualties saw young troops caught in a terrible quagmire of mud and munitions which none of them had been remotely prepared for. A hundred and fifty thousand were killed in the punishing shellfire, the endless ordeal of attack and counter-attack; and twice that number were wounded.

Here, Lyn Macdonald lets the men who were there tell their stories. They are vivid, harrowing, sometimes terrifying - yet shot through with humour, and tales of immense courage and an astonishing spirit of resilience.